(Hypebot) — The petition to ban the music of Kanye West from Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, and other streaming services has gathered 86,094 signatures.
Another campaign encourages fans to use the artist blocking feature on Spotify and other streamers to ban Kanye from their accounts and deprive him of receiving any royalties. This Instagram post includes how-to instructions.
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The major streaming services have not commented on either campaign, but in the past, they have been reluctant to be seen as censors unless the offending speech is within the lyrics of a song.
The Change.org petition was launched after West made his latest antisemitic comments during an interview with right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones of Infowars. “I like Hitler,” he declared during the interview. West is also a long-time Holocaust denier.
“By doing this, I hope that we can limit Kanye’s influence on society by eliminating his ability to make money off of people streaming his music,” wrote petition creator Nathan Goergen. “His statements are virtually irredeemable, and the time has finally come for him to receive a major punishment. We cannot let him continue to influence our youth and our society as a whole.
Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.
